NASTY Community report Of Consumer Reports, Joint basic work AND the most perfect union discovered price experiments within the Instacart app that resulted in higher or lower prices for different users for the exact same items in the same store.
The organizations worked together to enroll 437 shoppers in a four-city experiment where each shopper added the same items from the exact same store to their Instacart cart. Almost 75% of food products were presented to shoppers at different prices, with up to five different prices for the same item. The average difference between the highest and lowest displayed prices was 13%, while the highest delta for a single item was 23%.
Engadget contacted Instacart and received the following response. It reads in part: “Just as retailers have long tested prices in their brick-and-mortar stores to better understand consumer preferences, a subset of just 10 retail partners—those who already charge margins—are doing the same online through Instacart. These limited, short-term, randomized tests help retail partners understand what’s most important to consumers and how to keep essential items affordable. (it’s not based on supply and demand) but doesn’t use personal demographic pricing and these experiences are random.
Most of the tests were conducted in Safeway and Target stores and both produced similar results. A Target spokesperson said the company “is not affiliated with Instacart and is not responsible for prices on the Instacart platform.” Instacart said this As soon as that at the time of the study they were “evaluating various approaches” to recoup platform costs, but have since stopped conducting price tests on Target orders.
Instacart published an article today that tries to explain how these tests, which showed higher prices, are actually intended to help retailers invest in lower prices. He also waxes poetic about Instacart’s commitment to affordable food for consumers.